Ginny Comes Out
by Rookus
Summary: Ginny comes out to Hermione whilst at the Burrow. Hermione helps her through the turbulence of telling her parents and family.
1. Chapter 1

Hermione's eyes fell to the lopsided old clock above Ginny's bedroom window. It was past 3 o'clock in the morning – why was Ginny's bed empty?

Hermione swung her legs over the side of the bed and pulled on her thick winter socks. She scrambled around in the dark for a few minutes until she found Ron's old Weasley jumper and pulled it over her head, wrapping it around herself as a cloud of her breath appeared in front of her face. As softly as she could, she padded down through the floors of the Burrow until she reached the kitchen. Ginny was sat cross-legged on an old sofa in the corner, her hands wrapped around a steaming cup of tea. She looked up as Hermione entered.

"Hey," she said softly. "What are you doing up?"

"I came to ask you the same thing." Hermione poured herself a cup of tea and sat next to Ginny. "What's wrong?"

Ginny sighed. She looked into her mug and watched as the tea swirled slowly around it. She was silent, occasionally opening her mouth, seeming to think better of it, and then closing it again. Hermione watched Ginny struggle. It was clear Ginny was trying to tell her something, and Hermione was unsure as how to proceed. Should she try and prompt Ginny, or should she stay quiet and wait for Ginny to open up? Just as she had made up her mind to say something, Ginny opened her own mouth.

"I'm gay."

There was a silence, and then –

"I know."

Ginny looked up, surprised. Hermione smiled.

"You know? What? How?"

Hermione tucked her feet underneath the blanket on the sofa and looked at Ginny.

"I just had an inkling." She said simply. "I didn't _know_ , as such. I just came to the conclusion after some observation, I suppose."

Ginny shook her head.

"Nothing gets past you, does it?" She grinned shakily at Hermione, who gave a small shrug.

"How long have you known?" Hermione asked Ginny.

Ginny looked back into her mug of tea, contemplating her answer.

"I think part of me has always known," she said slowly. "I've known for definite for about two years or so."

Hermione put her hand gently on Ginny's arm.

"Ginny, why didn't you tell me?" She said softly. "Did you think I was going to care?"

Ginny's eyes glistened with tears. The truth was, she knew that Hermione wouldn't care. She hadn't told her because the problem had felt small, insignificant when compared with what Hermione had been through herself. Chasing Voldemort, living on the run, sending away her parents… The fact that Ginny liked women seemed to pale massively in comparison.

"I wanted to tell you," she told Hermione quietly. "It just never seemed like the right time to do it."

"In two years, you couldn't find the time?" Hermione raised her eyebrows disbelievingly, but there was a kindness behind the teasing look. She wrapped her hands around the mug she was holding.

"Ginny, you can always talk to me. Always, about anything. Regardless of what else is going on." She looked at Ginny with meaning as she said this last part.

Ginny smiled sadly in response and was about to reply when a noise came from just outside the room. The girls looked over to see Mrs. Weasley poking her head around the doorframe.

"I thought I could hear someone down here! What on Earth are you girls doing, it's almost 4 o'clock in the morning!" Mrs. Weasley bustled over to the sofa, taking the now empty mugs from Ginny and Hermione's hands and hurrying over to the sink. "Get to bed, go on, the both of you! Up drinking tea at this time."

Ginny and Hermione slouched out of the living room, Ginny rolling her eyes and muttering about being adults, and crept back up the stairs to Ginny's bedroom to get some sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Ginny awoke the next morning with a feeling of misgiving in her stomach. It had felt like a relief when she had told Hermione last night, protected by the surrounding darkness, the cosy atmosphere; in the light of day, things seemed a lot more real. She suddenly had the urge to vomit.

Ginny crept out of bed and quietly got dressed as Hermione slept on in the other bed. She pulled on her old jeans, a thick denim shirt and her battered leather jacket, wrapping a scarf around her neck and pulling it up over the lower half of her face. She padded softly down to the kitchen and slipped her feet into a pair of boots waiting by the front door. As she laced them up on the doorstep, she watched the chickens peck around in the yard and wondered what would happen now that this secret she had been harbouring for two years was out.

Hermione stirred as she heard the front door to the Burrow thud shut. She sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes, peering over the windowsill just in time to catch Ginny's back disappearing down the end of the lane. Hermione sighed. She had a feeling Ginny had purposely not woken her up to ask Hermione to join her. She got dressed and headed down to the kitchen, bumping into Ron and Harry on the way.

"You're up early," she said to them, surprised. Ron and Harry were home from auror training for the Christmas holdiays and had made a habit of sleeping in until at least noon.

"Yeah, well, the novelty of us being home has apparently worn off," Ron mumbled sleepily. "Mum won't make us breakfast now unless we're up with everyone else to eat it."

The three of them made their way down to the kitchen where Mrs. Weasley was now busying herself around the cooker.

"Morning!" she trilled, stirring a large pot of beans by waving her wand in lazy, circular motions above it. "Now Hermione, where on Earth has Ginny headed off to? I saw her disappearing down the lane as I came down. I shouted after her, but she didn't seem to hear me."

Hermione saw Ron grinning at Harry. He knew his sister's selective hearing trick well.

"I'm not sure, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said, pouring three cups of tea for herself, Ron and Harry. "She was gone before I woke up."

"Well, she'd better be back soon or she won't be getting any breakfast!"

Ginny did not show up at breakfast and it was not until later that morning that she slipped in through the back door and quietly tiptoed up to her bedroom. Hermione was laid on her bed reading a book. Ginny stopped in the doorway.

"Hi," she said uncertainly. She had hoped Hermione wouldn't be here when she got back. She suddenly felt awkward.

"Ginny, come here." Hermione sat up on the bed and patted the spot next to her. Ginny obediently shut the door behind her and sat with Hermione on the bed.

"What's the matter?" Hermione asked.

Ginny shuffled uncomfortably.

"About what I told you last night," she began. "Have you said anything to Ron and Harry?"

Hermione frowned at Ginny.

"Of course I haven't," she said softly. "But I think you should tell them, Gin. You should tell your parents, at least."

Ginny snorted.

"Mum would have kittens if I told her! Can you imagine? I don't think this was really her plan for me."

"Who cares what her plan for you is?" Hermione said fiercely. Ginny looked up in surprise. It was unlike Hermione to not care what Mrs. Weasley thought. "Ginny, this isn't like Bill growing his hair long, or the twins leaving school early, or Harry and Ron not going back to Hogwarts for their last year. This is about _you_ , and about who you _are_. If she doesn't like it, then she's just going to have to deal with it. This is about you being _happy,_ Ginny, and if there's anything the war taught us, it's that you need to live now, you need to be who you want to be, who you _have_ to be. Ginny, you need to be you."

Ginny blinked, slightly taken aback by Hermione's ferocity. She felt a tiny surge of courage course through her. Hermione was right. She needed to be herself. And she needed to tell her parents.


	3. Chapter 3

"Just do it. Just go in there, be brave, and don't come back out until you've told them." Ginny was pacing up and down in the hallway of the Burrow as Hermione tried to prep her for the task ahead.

"Hermione, I can't do it." Ginny stopped pacing and looked at Hermione. Her face was pale. She could hear her parents' voices in the kitchen behind the closed door and her stomach churned unpleasantly, the stew she had eaten for dinner threatening to reappear. She knew her parents were not small-minded people, but they were still traditionalists. The more she thought about it, the more inclined Ginny was to think that her parents might not even know that people _were_ gay. They had never mentioned anything regarding the topic, never mentioned that any of their friends were gay; a new wave of panic came over Ginny - _what if she had to explain it to them?_

"Ginny, you can do this, OK?" Hermione took her by the shoulders. "You just need to – oh, for God's sake." Hermione broke off as Ron came thumping down the stairs.

"What are you two doing?" Ron frowned at his sister and Hermione huddled outside the kitchen door.

"Nothing Ron, just…" Hermione put her hand on Ron's chest, pushing him gently back up the stairs.

"It's ok," Ginny said, taking a deep breath. "He may as well stay."

"What's going on?" said Ron, looking from Hermione to Ginny. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," said Ginny. "Not yet, anyway." She looked up at Ron. "I'm about to tell mum and dad I'm gay…"

There was a short silence, during which Ginny stared apprehensively at her brother. She had kept this hidden from him for so long that it seemed surreal to now hear the words leave her mouth. They floated around her like a pin pulled from a grenade. It suddenly occurred to her that she could not take it back – once the words were said, her secret was out and no amount of bargaining or backtracking was going to change that.

After what seemed like an eternity, Ron shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess that makes sense." He said simply, nodding at Ginny.

"What, so… you don't feel weird about it?" Ginny asked. Ron made a face.

"I love you, Gin. I don't care who you're with, as long as they treat you well. And support the Chudley Cannons."

Relief flooded Ginny and the misgiving she had been feeling moments before was replaced by a silent determination.

"I'm going to do it." Ginny's voice quivered with her newfound resolve, buoyed by her brother's easy acceptance. She closed her eyes, took one more deep breath, and disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Ron and Hermione alone in the hallway.

Ron turned to Hermione as the door swung shut behind Ginny.

"Did you know about this?" He asked her.

"I found out last week," Hermione replied, "but I already had a pretty good idea."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Ron frowned down at Hermione.

"It wasn't my place to tell," Hermione shrugged, pulling Ron away from the door as he attempted to press his ear up against it to establish what was occurring on the other side. "I wanted her to tell you, but she wasn't sure how you'd react."

"How I'd react?" Ron stopped fumbling around his pocket trying to find an extendable ear and looked at Hermione. "How did she think I was going to react?"

Hermione hesitated, considering her response carefully.

"I don't know, Ron. This has been really hard for her. I think she knew that you would be fine with it – that you love her and that nothing could change that, but sometimes people start to think irrationally when they've been holding something in for so long."

Ron made a face.

"Bloody women. They're never thinking rationally."

Hermione rolled her eyes and started to climb the staircase.

"Aren't we staying to listen?" Ron asked disappointedly, but after catching Hermione's gaze, he reluctantly followed.

It was almost nightfall when Ginny eventually re-entered her bedroom, where Hermione was scribbling away on a bit of parchment at the desk. She looked up as Ginny entered.

"How did it go?" She asked carefully. Ginny's eyes looked red and puffy, but her face seemed relaxed and calm. She flung herself down on her bed and looked over at Hermione.

"It was awful," she laughed. "Mum cried. Dad was awkward. Mum cried some more. Then I cried, then we cried together, then mum cried some more, then dad almost cried, and then we had an awkward discussion about how wonderful they thought I was, regardless of being the black sheep who is disgracing the family."

"Ginny," Hermione laughed, "you're not the black sheep. Don't be ridiculous."

"I think they're actually OK with it. Like you say, with everything that's happened… it just seems to have given us all a bit of perspective."

Hermione nodded.

"I'm really proud of you," she told Ginny. "I know it wasn't easy."

Ginny smiled and let herself sink into her pillows, feeling, finally, like things were looking up.

As Christmas closed in on the Burrow, the tension Ginny had been feeling the whole holiday seemed to melt away. It was such a liberating feeling, allowing herself to fully be who she was. Nothing had changed, really – she wasn't introducing her parents to girls she'd brought home, nobody was treating her any different to how they usually did, but just knowing that they knew who she was made all the difference in the world.


End file.
